Pigs will fly again!
Bob Mackie to reimagine revue’s wacky costumes off-B’way
ANYONE who’s been knocking around theater in New York as long as I have surely has fond memories of Howard Crabtree’s “When Pigs Fly.”
That campy revue opened at the Douglas Fairbanks Theatre in 1996 and racked up 840 performances, making it one of the longestrunning off-Broadway shows of its time.
Crabtree made all the costumes, and they were, well, a stitch. Outlandish, witty and gay (in both senses of the word), they were as funny as the quips and songs. In one number, “Wear Your Vanity With Pride,” vanity tables were part of the costumes.
If you missed the show then, you’re in luck: Joshua
Goodman, one of the pro- ducers of “Come From Away,” is reviving “When Pigs Fly” off-Broadway in the fall. Mark Waldrop, who wrote many of the sketches for the original, will direct the new production, assisted by choreographer Denis Jones (“Honeymoon in Vegas”).
Sadly, Crabtree isn’t around to make the costumes. He died of AIDS-related complications in 1996, just a month before “When Pigs Fly” went into previews. He was 41. Days before his death, he was at the theater, putting the finishing touches on his costumes and his show.
But here’s some good news: Bob Mackie is going to make a whole new array of outfits for the revival. The nine-time Emmy winner, 77, has designed costumes for Liza Minnelli, Whitney Houston, Jennifer Lopez, Oprah Winfrey and even Robert Goulet (the biggest diva of all).
Mackie’s costumes are often witty, the most famous being the curtain dress
Carol Burnett wore in the parody of “Gone With the Wind” on “The Carol Burnett Show.”
Crabtree said in interviews that the curtain dress was one of his major inspi- rations. So it’s fitting, and rather touching, that Mackie will help bring “When Pigs Fly” back to the stage.
DIRECTOR John Doyle and composer Stephen
Schwartz are teaming up for a production of “As You Like It” this summer at the Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, LI.
No word yet on the cast, but anything Doyle and Schwartz do is going to be worth the trip to the South Fork. Performances begin Aug. 8.
CHARLES Isherwood is
back in the New York Times! The producers of “Amélie” are taking out a huge ad in this Sunday’s Arts & Leisure section to showcase Isherwood’s rave review of their show. This is cheeky since Isherwood was dismissed from the Times in February. His review of “Amélie” ran at his new home, Broadway News, a Web site run by Broadway Briefing.
I hope producers keep this up. New York magazine’s
Jesse Green is about to join the Times as co-chief theater critic with Ben Brant
ley. They’re both fine writers, but they tend to agree on everything. Isherwood often has a different opinion, and it will be fun to see his reviews trumpeted as ads in the Times.
Isherwood is taking the Times to arbitration for wrongful dismissal, by the way. The arbitration begins in June.
Could be the best show in town.